More than 500 Hawaiʻi public and charter school teachers are expected to receive their first two paychecks of the school year Friday after over a month of payment delays.
The Hawaiʻi Department of Education this week has agreed to conduct an external audit of its payment processes after settling a grievance brought by the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association.
It's unclear when the audit will be conducted.
Additionally, teachers will receive an extra $400 per missed paycheck in the next few weeks. The funds would compensate educators who had overdraft fees in their bank accounts and accommodate other financial burdens.
During a Board of Education meeting Thursday, Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the payment delay was caused by teachers completing their onboarding tasks after the July 9 deadline.
“We truly understand how critical timely pay is and we deeply regret the hardship that this has caused,” he said.
However, Andrea Eshelman, HSTA's deputy executive director and chief negotiator, said the DOE needs to modernize its paperwork process when hiring new teachers.
“What clearly has happened is as things have sped up in modern times, we have a great new portal to apply for jobs, but everything goes back to the paper process, and it really needs to be modernized,” she said.
Eshelman added that is unacceptable for teachers not to be paid due to paperwork filed after the deadline.
“We're hoping through this process that the auditor will identify ways that the department can modernize its systems to improve the onboarding process and move away from this paper-heavy process,” she said.
Several teachers submitted written testimony about the delay's effects on their ability to pay bills on time or put a deposit down on an apartment.
Sonya Pinsky, a fourth grade teacher at Voyager Charter School, wrote that she wasn't prepared to go six weeks without pay.
“I struggled to feed myself and was constantly stressed about how I was going to pay bills or rent,” she said in testimony.
Jashua Walker, a Kawananakoa Middle School teacher, said he has an overdraft fee due to insufficient funds after a dental procedure. He also said his credit score plummeted because he couldn't pay his credit card and loan payments.
“Moreover, the inability to receive my paycheck on time meant that I could not afford basic necessities, such as a bus pass,” he wrote. “Consequently, I was forced to walk 77 miles over eleven days from Kaimuki to upper Nuuanu to get to work. This dangerous, physically exhausting and demoralizing experience was a direct result of the delayed paycheck.”
BOE member Kahele Dukelow asked the department how the payment delays were communicated to the teachers.
Sean Bacon, an assistant superintendent of the DOEʻs Office of Talent Management, said that some people move to Hawaiʻi from the mainland within 10 days of the start date and still need to complete their appointment, background checks or other onboarding tasks.
“I think communication is definitely an important part,” he said. “We've got to figure out a multitude of ways to communicate this to individuals when they are applying.”
“They also have to go to the Hawaiʻi's Teacher Standards Board and ensure that they have a license prior to starting,” he continued. “There's numerous things that have to be checked off here in order for them to start.”
